Assessing the water infrastructure in Small and Rural Indigenous (SRI) communities: a risk assessment framework

ABSTRACT Provides readers with a conceptual overview of how this research was conducted and its workflow. Lack of access to clean and safe drinking water has been an ongoing crisis for many Small and Rural Indigenous (SRI) communities. A risk assessment framework was proposed and demonstrated using the data of two SRI communities in British Columbia, Canada. Initially, a literature review was conducted to identify risks primarily occurring at upstream stages of water infrastructure. These risks at the upstream stage were categorized using criteria and indicators. Four criteria, i.e., Systematic Inequity, Compliance Risk, Strategic Risk, and Governance Risk, were established and further mapped over twenty-nine (29) indicators – qualitatively evaluated as low, medium, and high categories. The risks occurring at downstream stages were assessed using the traditional human health risk assessment (HHRA) methodology. The framework facilitated the evaluation of the impact of upstream risks on downstream water quality. Compliance, systematic inequity, and governance risks were higher in Community 1. The arsenic levels in the drinking water of both communities are slightly above the conservative risk standard of 10−6 but were below the 10−4 benchmark. The proposed framework identifies risks at both upstream and downstream stages of water infrastructure, enabling decision-makers to target early-stage interventions and prevent upstream risks from propagating downstream.